Anti-abortion groups ramp up efforts to fight Amendment 4

As reproductive rights advocates continue to rally to enshrine the right to abortion in Florida’s Constitution, anti-abortion groups are fighting the passage of the amendment in November. 

On November 5th, Florida voters will cast their vote to decide whether they want to keep Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 6-week abortion ban – which bans abortion before many women know if they are pregnant – or override it and protect abortion rights up to viability, which the medical community puts at about 24 weeks of pregnancy. 

If it passes with at least 60% of the vote, Amendment 4 will limit government interference with abortion in Florida and make the procedure largely legal again in the state.

The amendment’s complete text reads: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”

If Amendment 4 falls shy of 60% of the vote, however, and six-week ban is upheld, women in Florida will be impacted in many ways, including having to travel many states away to get an abortion. 

RELATED: Florida doctor says 6-week abortion ban is ‘jeopardizing future of healthcare in Florida’

This is not only cost-prohibitive for many, but also requires taking time away from work and family, impacting mainly low-income women, including women of color. 

“Marginalized women will be most affected [if the six-week ban goes into effect], and any woman that suffers an unfortunate medical situation or miscarriage or any other number of medical conditions that could put their life at risk or the baby’s life at risk,” Alejandra Rondon, Latinx constituency manager at Florida Rising, Florida’s largest independent political progressive organization, told Floricua. 

For some women, traveling won’t be an option, leaving them forced to carry a pregnancy they might not want.

Amendment 4’s opposition

As reproductive rights advocates continue to rally to enshrine the right to abortion in Florida’s Constitution, anti-abortion groups are fighting the passage of Amendment 4.

One of Amendment 4’s more critical opponents, is anti-abortion activist Marjorie Dannenfelser, who the Los Angeles Times called “perhaps more than any other woman … responsible for the fall of Roe v. Wade.” 

Dannenfelser – president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America – is the chair of Protect Women Florida Action, one of at least five political committees raising money to oppose Amendment 4. The others are Keep Florida Pro-Life, Florida Voters Against Extremism (a/k/a No on 4), Do No Harm Florida, and Life First PC.

Gov. DeSantis’ own political committee, the Florida Freedom Fund, has also raised more than $2.5 million to oppose Amendment 4. 

Anti-abortion groups prepare to challenge the results

Even if the amendment passes, anti-abortion groups are preparing to challenge the results. 

Mat Staver, the founder of the anti-abortion group Liberty Counsel, told Politico that if voters approve the abortion rights initiative, “there is a prime lawsuit waiting to take it up to the Florida Supreme Court.” 

According to Staver, a provision in the Declaration of Rights, found in the state Constitution, guarantees rights for “all natural persons.” Three of the seven justices on the state Supreme Court wrote in an April 1 opinion that the court has yet to decide if fetuses are considered “all natural persons,” leaving the door open for a legal challenge to resolve that matter, and potentially, to block Amendment 4. 

A troubled history

Even before Amendment 4 made it to the ballot, it faced opposition from anti-choice advocates and political opponents. 

State Attorney General Ashley Moody, who opposes abortion, asked the court to review the wording of the proposed amendment. Moody argued that the language of the initiative would “mislead voters,” saying that the term “viability” can have more than one meaning.

Pro-choice advocates argued that viability is largely understood to mean the point at which the fetus is viable outside the uterus, which is usually between 23 and 24 weeks.

RELATED: Rick Scott has supported abortion bans, voted against protecting birth control and IVF

In another effort to derail the amendment, a financial impact statement that will appear alongside the measure on voters’ ballots claims that multiple Florida laws could be challenged as unconstitutional if Amendment 4 was to take effect, resulting in lost tax revenue and high litigation costs. Two of the three members of the economic panel that crafted the financial impact statement were Gov. DeSantis’ appointees. 

Supporters of the amendment strongly denounced the financial impact statement’s language, pointing out that it is designed to confuse voters. Lauren Brenzel, Campaigns Director for Yes on 4, called the economists’ hearings a “sham.” 

Dr. Mona V. Mangat, an internal medicine/pediatric specialist and Board Chair of the Committee to Protect Health Care in Saint Petersburg, Florida, also denounced the statement’s language, saying that financial impact statements are “supposed to be neutral, but this one reads like an extreme anti-abortion platform.”

Ultimately, the Florida Supreme Court rejected a request filed by lawyers for the Floridians Protecting Freedom Committee – the group behind Amendment 4 — to strike the financial statement from the ballot.

Overcoming obstacles

Despite the legal wranglings and setbacks, pro-choice advocates are confident about victory in November. 

“Voters will choose to restore women’s rights, because at the end of the day, Florida’s ban on women’s fundamental rights is dangerous, unpopular, and wrong,” said Senate Democratic Minority Leader Lauren Book (D-Davie).